An acute shortage of Viral Transport Medium, a reagent used for COVID-19 testing, has hit the state of Uttar Pradesh. According to the reports from the state health and family welfare department, on Thursday, only three lakh units of VTM were left in the divisional warehouses of the UP Medical Supplies Corporation. In UP, every day, on average, 60,000 samples of COVID-19 are tested, with the number of tests going up to 1.25 lakh at times. Under such circumstances, a stock of about three lakh units is not likely to survive for more than 4-5 days. 

According to the reports, in Gorakhpur and Meerut, the stock is under 2,000 units, while in the Varanasi division, which is witnessing a high footfall of tourists and pilgrims, the stock is about 8,000 units. Meanwhile, in the Lucknow division, the warehouse has 24,000 units, which will be divided among six districts. The maximum stock is in the Saharanpur (56,800) and Azamgarh (50,000) divisions. Hence, a crisis is staring at the face of the UP government, which has been lauded for its COVID-19 management by various national and global agencies. 

A health official stated that the internal data indicates that the corporation has over 50 million units of RT PCR testing kits, but a reagent must be paired with a matching kit, otherwise the VTM and kits would not serve the purpose. He added that three months ago, the corporation did float a tender for the procurement of VTM, but the process could not follow its timelines, leading to the cancellation of the order.

(Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/up-stares-at-acute-shortage-of-covid-19-testing-reagent/articleshow/93937404.cms )